IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-JMCE)

e-ISSN: 2278-1684,p-ISSN: 2320-334X, Volume 12, Issue 1 Ver. II (Jan- Feb. 2015), PP 85-92
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Energy and Exergy Analysis of Organic Rankine Cycle Using

Alternative Working Fluids
Deepak Tiwari1, Akhilesh Arora2, Naushad Ahmad Ansari3,*Dr.A.F.Sherwani
Abstract: The present study is based on parametric investigation in terms of thermal efficiency, exergetic
efficiency and exergy destruction with the help mathematical modeling on different ORC models using different
fluids. The Thermal efficiency of ORC model of Saturated, Trilateral is compared by using working fluids such
as (HFO-1234yf,HFC-134a,HFC-245fa,Ethanol,Iso-pentane by varying expander inlet temperature (30160C),at fixed condensation temperature(30C) assuming fixed expander isentropic efficiency ( =0.75) and
fixed isentropic pump efficiency( =0.60). The Thermal efficiency as well as exergetic efficiency has been
observed best for theHFO-1234yf and found nearly close with HFC-134a. HFO-1234yf has good potential for
working fluid for ORC application for low to medium temperature. It has zero global warming potential (GWP),
zero Ozone layer depletion (ODP) and very Low evaporation Temperature. This paper provides a basis to
compare the thermal and exergetic efficiency for various working fluids and exergy destruction in various
component such as Expander, Evaporator,Condenser,Pump for saturated and Trilateral cycle when used with
R-1234yf as working substance.
Keywords: Organic Rankine cycle models, Energy analysis& Exergy analysis, Exergy destruction; R-1234yf,
R-134a, R-245fa, Ethanol, Isopentane.
Biographical notes: Deepak Tiwari is pursuing Ph.D. From Department of Mechanical Engineering of Jamia
Millia Islamia University, Delhi. His research area includes exergy analysis of thermal systems and alternative
refrigerants.
Akhilesh Arora is working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and
Automation at Indira Gandhi Delhi Technological University for Women, Delhi, India. He obtained his PhD
from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 2011. His research area includes alternate refrigerants,
alternate refrigeration technologies and exergy analysis of thermal systems.
Naushad Ahmad Ansari is working as an Assistant Professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering at Delhi
Technological University, Delhi. He obtained his Master of Technology (M. Tech) in Thermal Engineering from
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh in 2000. His research area includes alternate refrigeration technologies,
exergy analysis of thermal systems, fluid mechanics and computational fluid dynamics.
Dr. A.F.Sherwani is working as an Assistant Professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering of Jamia
Millia Islamia University, Delhi. His research area includes alternate refrigeration technologies, exergy analysis
of thermal systems and renewable, sustainable energy and life cycle analysis.

I.

Introduction

Heat is recovered by organic Rankine cycles (ORC).Low grade heat is useful for operation of Organic
Rankine cycle the Low grade heat is available from various heat sources such as solar ,ocean , thermal ,
geothermal, biomass, and available source of heat from engine exhaust or industrial process waste heat. The
word ORC has been used from the fact that it is basically a Rankine cycle which runs organic Fluid as a working
substance Serrano et al. [1] did the theoretical investigation and has suggested that possibility to introduce the
concept of recovery of waste heat in heavy duty diesel engine of two stage turbocharged engine and introduced
the best use of IC engine Exhaust waste heat coupling with simple water Rankine cycle. Wang.et al. [2]
Proposed and designed a experimental set up of solar operated rankine cycle by using R-245fa as a working
substance and used evacuated and Flat plate collector and found the efficiency of overall power generation of
evacuated collector is 4.2% and with flat plate collector is 3.2%. DiGenova et al. [3] proposed a customized
organic Rankine cycle based on the heat source from Fischer Tropsch plant reactor and found that the steam
Rankine cycle may achieve 20.6% conversion efficiency using this heat source and by using hexane as a
working substance in ORC the conversion efficiency may reach 20.6%. Wang et al. [4] proposed the concept of
discontinuous waste heat recovery at low temperature and did the performance analysis with the effect of
temperature at exit to the heat source on thermal efficiency, power consumption ,mass flow rate,expander outlet
temperature, net power output,cycle irreversibility,exergy efficiency by using various working substances such
as acetone,butane,isopentane,pentane,R-245fa,CF3l,R-414b,R-21 and found acetone shows the least exergy
destruction and R-245fa shows maximum thermal efficiency at fixed pinch point temperature difference.
Larjola [5] suggested the applicability of high speed (ORC) and found that the low temperature waste heat
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Energy And Exergy Analysis Of Organic Rankine Cycle Using Alternative Working Fluids
sources are such as combustion of I.C. engine blast furnace hot gases steel industries diesel engine exhaust
gases, gas turbine can be converted into electricity with highest efficiency. Li et al. [6] Analyzed the effect of
fouling in organic rankine cycle and concluded that convective and radiative heat losses increase with increase
in operating temperature. Quoilin et al. [7] proposed the design optimization and performance of economical
solar operated (ORC) to generate power for rural and remote area and found that overall efficiency of electricity
can be reached 7to 8% . Heberle et al. [8] carried out the exergy analysis of a combined heat and power
generating ORC using geo-thermal energy inlet source (>450k) and used four working fluids are such as
isobutene,isopentane,R-227ea,R-245fa and found that R-227 shows highest second law efficiency for inlet
temperature 353-423k and isobutene is best working fluid for higher temperature inlet source of geothermal
water . Aleksandra& Borsukiewicz [9] has calculated pump work in ORC by using 18 working substance
in subcritical organic rankine cycle plant and found that for lower critical temperature of the working
substance and the pressure in the cycle will be more thus pumping power will be more.
Nobru et al. [10] presented Study on First Law efficiency(Energy analysis) by using HFO-1234yf as
working substance for low to medium temperature range of Organic Rankine cycle and found that it is potential
working substance having negligible ozone depletion potential, global warming potential and found highest
thermal efficiency 8.8-11.4% for expander inlet temperature range of (180-160) in SupercriticalOrganic
Rankine cycle.Till now there is no study about exergy analysis and exergy destruction in various component
expander,pump,condenser,and evaporator using HFO-1234yf as working substance in Organic Rankine
cycle(ORC)
In this paper, the first and second law analysis of ORC have been carried out using working fluids as
HFO-1234yf,HFC-134a,HFC-245fa,Ethanol,Iso-pentane.

II.

Basic Organic Rankine Cycle

Fig.1. Shows schematic diagram of Organic Rankine cycle,It consist of following component are such as
Evaporator,Expander, Condenser, Pump.

2.1 Working Fluids

There are five working fluids used in this simulation study: HFO-1234yf, HFC-134a, HFC-245fa, isopentane, and ethanol. The working substances HFC-245fa and iso-pentane are dry fluid used to utilize lowtemperature heat source from industrial power plants waste.Ethanol and HFC-134a are wet fluids and Ethanol is
in use now a days as a good automotive working fluid in organic rankine cycle because of its capability to
perform best for medium-temperature range (200-300C).The purpose of using organic substance as working
fluids is because they have evaporation temperature which is found to be very low as compared to steam (water
vapor) and has this tendency to change into vapor or superheated vapor by using low to medium-temperature
heat source.The organic substances dry (HFC-245fa, Iso-pentane) and isentropic (HFC-1234yf) which may
enhance the expander life more; The vapor gets expansion in the expander has tendency to remain in dry or
either saturated or superheated vapor conditions.
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Energy And Exergy Analysis Of Organic Rankine Cycle Using Alternative Working Fluids
Working
fluid
HFO-1234yf
HFC-134a
HFC-245fa
Isopentane
Ethanol
Acetone

a.
b.
c.

Flammability/
Toxicity
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
No

Type
Isentropic
Wet
Dry
Dry
Wet
Wet

Molecular
mass(kg/kmol)
114.042a
102.03b
134.05b
72.149b
46.068b
58.08

(0 )
94.7a
101a
154a
187.2a
240.7a
3.60a

(0 )
-29.45
26.0745
15.14
27.83
78.24
329.15

()

ODP

3.382b
4.0593b
3.651b
3.387b
6.148b
4.70a

~0
~0
~0
~0
na
~0

GWP(10
0yr)
4
1320c
1020c
~20c
Na
Na

Table-1Comparative characterstic of working fluids (HFO-1234yf, HFC-134a, HFC-245fa, Isopentane,

Ethanol, Acetone)
a Ref.Akasa et al
b REFPRP:Ref.Lemmon et al.[20]
c Ref.calm et al [21]

2.2 Saturated cycle model:

Fig.2 shows T-s diagram for wet fluids (such as HFC-134a,Ethanol)It is similar to trilateral cycle it is
very compact design system can be used to obtain reasonable thermal efficiencies by recovering waste heat
from low temperature level. The temperature-entropy (T-S) diagram for the saturated cycle is shown by the
cycle path 1-2-3-4-1. The heat is supplied to evaporator (2-3) at isobaric condition. The process (1-2) is
reversible adiabatic pumping the process (3-4) is reversible adiabatic expansion. The process (4-1) shows
constant pressure heat rejection process

2.3 Trilateral cycle model:

Fig.3 Shows T-s diagram of ORC for isentropic fluid (HFO-1234yf) The trilateral organic rankine
cycle seems to be triangular rankine cycle. It looks very simple cycle when compared with a conventional cycle,
it shows very competitive performance when it is used for low temperature source of heat. It has low operating
cost of same sized components.

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Energy And Exergy Analysis Of Organic Rankine Cycle Using Alternative Working Fluids
Fig 4 Shows T-s diagram of ORC for dry fluid (HFC-245fa,Isopentane)

The reason of using this cycle is that the temperature profile of working substance is matching perfectly
to the heat source. Its operating pressure is optimum, so it is used economically for where low powered heat
application is required.
In this simulation work, T-s diagram for the trilateral ORC model is represented by cycle path 1-2-3-41. The pressure, at which pump is working which is same as evaporation pressure but practically it is lower than
the critical pressure of the working fluid. The inlet temperature to the expander is maintained at saturated
condition.
The cycle consists of reversible adiabatic (isentropic) pumping shown by state (1-2) of a working fluid
then, followed by constant pressure heat supply to the working fluid (2-3),then isentropic expansion of the
working fluid containing two-phase mixture at state (3-4) is then entered, for constant pressure heat rejection in
condenser and finally return with two-phase mixture at saturated liquid state (4-1).The trilateral cycle is differed
by conventional cycle where the working substance remains in the form of liquid when it exit from the
evaporator. By keeping constant condenser temperature, the thermal efficiency substantially increases when
operating inlet temperature varies from Tin=50C to 17010 then falls slowly when the expander inlet
temperature further reaches up to 200C.
2.4 Energy Analysis
The following assumption are made during thermodynamic analysis of ORC
1) The process is steady -flow and steady state;2)There is no pressure drop in connecting pipes and heat
exchanger:3)process in expander and pump is isentropic;4)There is no heat loss from equipments and
pipes;5)The heat carrier of exhaust gas is non- corrosive and non-condensable in heat exchange process
;6)The isentropic expander efficiency 75%.) ;7)The isentropic pump efficiency is 60%.The fixed
condensation temperature is 30C.
The general energy balance equation for all existing cycle (Saturated, Trilateral, Supercritical, Superheated, and
Subcritical) is as follow:
The isentropic pump efficiency &power

2
= 2

(1)

= (2 -1 )

(2)

For the expander

Isentropic efficiency
( 3 4)

= (

(3)

3 4 )

= (3 4 )

(4)

The amount of heat supplied to the working fluid into evaporator

=*(3 -2 )

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(5)

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Energy And Exergy Analysis Of Organic Rankine Cycle Using Alternative Working Fluids
Thermal Efficiency Of the ORC cycle

=

(6)

( 3 4 ) ( 2 1 )

(7)

2.5 Exergy Analysis

The second law of thermodynamics assists in evaluating the performance of the system based on
exergy, which always decreases owing to irreversibility. Exergy is the measure of usefulness, quality or
potential of a stream to cause change and an effective measure of the potential of a substance to impact the
environment (Dincer, 2003). Exergy balance for a control volume undergoing steady state process is expressed
as (Lee and Sherif, 2001).

=
( )
( ) +
(1 ) +
(1 )

Where EDi represents the rate of exergy destruction occurring in the process in the component under
consideration
The first two terms on the right hand side represent exergy of streams entering and leaving the control
volume. The third and fourth terms are the exergy associated with heat transfer Q from the source maintained at
constant temperature T and is equal to work obtained by Carnot engine operating between T and T0. The last
term is the mechanical work transfer to or from the control volume. Second law performance of the system can
be measured in terms of exergetic efficiency.Exergetic efficiency can also be expressed in terms of total exergy
destruction and exergy supplied to the system.
Exergy destruction in evaporator:
Edevap = (h2-TO*S2)- (h3-T0*S3)+qs*[1-TO/ (T3+273)]

(8)

Exergy destruction in expander:

Edexp = (h3-TO*S3)- (h4-TO*S4)- (h3-h4)

(9)

Exergy destruction in condenser:

(h4-TO*S4)- (h1-To*S1)

(10)

Exergy destruction in pump:

Edpump= (h1-To*S1)- (h2-To*S2)+ (h2-h1)

(11)

Edtotal =Edevap +Edexp+Edcond+Edpump

Exergetic Efficiency
=1-Edtotal/Einpu

(12)
(13)

Einput =qS*[1-TO/ (T3+273)]+W

(14)

1 =WT/Einput

(15)

III.

Result And Discussion

This section deals with the result and discussion for simple ORC cycle with various working fluids at
different Expander inlet temperature at fixed condenser temperature (30C), Isentropic Expander efficiency
( =75%), IsentropicpumpEfficiency ( =60%).
Fig.5. Shows relative Comparison of Thermal Efficiency of Saturated by using various working fluid.
In saturated Rankine cycle model by using HFO-1234yf shows Lowest Thermal Efficiency (7%) and ethanol
shows highest thermal efficiency (20%) as compared to other working fluid in temperature Range (30-90C).

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Energy And Exergy Analysis Of Organic Rankine Cycle Using Alternative Working Fluids

Exergetic Efficiency Comparison of various Working Fluid in Saturated Cycle.

Fig.6.Exergetic efficiency for saturated ORC HFO-1234yf shows lower exergetic efficiency (52%) Ethanol
shows higher Exegetic efficiency(60%) for expander inlet temperature (30-100C).

Fig.7. shows Comparison of Exergy Destruction in variour component (Expander, Evaporator, Pump, and
Condenser) in Saturated cycle using R-1234yf
The exergy destruction (7kw) in evaporator is highest as compare to expander, pump, condense and
pump shows the lowest exergy destruction(2kw) for temperature range of (30-100C).

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Energy And Exergy Analysis Of Organic Rankine Cycle Using Alternative Working Fluids
Fig.8.Shows relative Comparison of Thermal Efficiency with Expander inlet Temperature of Trilateral cycle by
using various workingFluid .
It has been observed that Ethanol shows higher thermal efficiency (14%), HFO-1234yf shows
lower thermal efficiency(5%) for expander inlet temperate (30-160C).

Fig.9 Shows. Exergetic Efficiency Comparison of various Working Fluid in Trilateral cycle
HFC-134a shows highest exergetic efficiency(42%) is close to the exergetic efficiency(40%) when HFO1234yf is used.

Fig.10. Shows relative Comparison of Exergy destruction of Trilateral cycle by using HFO-1234yf as working
Fluid.
The exergy destruction in evaporator (1.8kw) is highest as compare to expander, pump, condenser and
pump shows (0.6kw) the lower exergy destruction.

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Energy And Exergy Analysis Of Organic Rankine Cycle Using Alternative Working Fluids
IV.

Conclusions

The first law efficiency obtained in this section is similar to the result obtained by Nobru et.al. On the
basis of result obtained from the thermodynamic model, the following conclusions are drawn:-HFO-1234yf is
used as working fluid in two ORC models through first order simulation are Saturated, Trilateral cycle. The first
law efficiency of HFO-1234yf has been compared with that of other working fluids (R-245fa, R-134a,
Isopentane, and Ethanol). HFO-1234yf may be used for low-to medium-temperature ORC applications; Thermal
efficiency is not always the best among the other simulated fluids depending on the temperature level of
expander. So, the HFO-1234yf can be used as a good alternative working fluid for low to medium-temperature
heat sources of ORC applications (at prescribed expander inlet temperature of up to 170C) if ODP and GWP
are considered within safe limit. Beyond the above work, in this paper the Exergetic efficiency and exergy
destruction has been calculated and compared by using HFO-1234yf as working fluid with other working
fluids(R-245fa, R- 134a,Isopentane, and Ethanol) which are as follows.
1) The exergetic efficiency of Ethanol is highest in saturated cycle (60%) when expander inlet temperature is
from 300C-1000C.
2) The exergetic efficiency of R-1234yf (9%) is found very close to exergetic efficiency of R-134a(10%) in
saturated cycle.
3) The exergetic efficiency of R-134a(42%) when used in Trilateral cycle is close to the exergetic
efficiency(40%) of R-1234yf as a working substance for expander inlet Temperature from 300C-90C.
4) The exergy destruction in evaporator is highest (7kw) and Lowest in pump (2kw) when R-1234yf is used as
working substance in saturated cycle for expander inlet temperature from 0C-100C.
5) The exergy destruction is highest (1.8kw) in evaporator and lowest in pump (0.18kw) for expander inlet
temperature from 300C-60C in Trilateral cycle.

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Nomenclature
HFO
HFC
EES
Ed

T
Subscripts
Cond
Exp
Pump
Evap
Ex
In
1
2
3
4
Greek letters

Hydro-fluro -Olefin
Hydro-fluro-carbon
Engineering equation solver
Exergy destruction (kw)
Efficiency (%)
Temperature (C)
condenser
expander
pump
evaporator
exergetic
inlet to expander
Pump inlet state
Pump exit state
Expander inlet state
Expander exit state
(efficiency)

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